“Sable has suffered a minor injury around the knee. He will take rest and he should be all right in one or two weeks at the maximum. It is not much to worry about,” Kumar, who is with the Army Sports Institute in Pune, told PTI.
“He (Sable) was trying to protect the runner ahead of him and who just jumped over the water barrier. While doing that, he himself fell, this kind of things happen in a race,” he added.
The athlete ahead of him lost balance and went down, causing Sable to stumble as well.
It was Kumar who spotted Sable after he joined the Indian Army in 2012. Kumar made Sable shift to steeplechase from cross country run in 2017 and nurtured him into a top athlete..
With just one point from three DL meetings this season, it will be difficult for the 30-year-old Sable to make it to the DL Finals on August 27-28 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Sable, whose national record stands at 8 minute 09.91 seconds, finished 13th in the Xiamen DL on April 16, was eighth in Keqiao — also in China — before a DNF in Monaco on Friday.
The last DL meeting which has men’s 3000m steeplechase in the roster is in Brussels on August 22.
On Friday, the sports ministry has approved Sable’s training in Colorado Springs, USA from July 15 to September 3 to prepare for the World Championships (September 13-21) in Tokyo for which he has already qualified. PTI PDS PDS KHS
